Book Information: Eclipse Penumbra

The guerilla war against the Second Alliance and its plans for a European apartheid intensifies in this second volume of John Shirley's A Song Called Youth.

"Almost anyone could be a fascist under the right circumstances. If they get scared enough. That's why we have to fight it so hard. Because it never quite goes away."

From the beginning, thwarting the Second Alliance had been the first priority of the New Resistance; now the SA had decided it was time to return the favor, Resistance could not be allowed to interfere with the progress of the SA's master plan. The elimination of the rebels would clear the way for Project Total Eclipse, which in turn would stretch the SA's shadow over every remaining outpost of humanity, selecting scapegoats, directing violence, and creating an immutable new order.

The penumbra of the Eclipse—it would establish complete SA control over the Grid, the space colony and the survivors of the war—and decide the fate of humanity itself.